Jan. 16, 2014
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Alonzo Mourning / Alexander Tamargo, Getty Images for Haute Living

by Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY

by Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY

WASHINGTON - After a month of marketing the federal exchange site as "not broken anymore," the White House has tossed the ball to Magic Johnson and Alonzo Mourning in new ads touting health insurance to begin running Thursday.

The basketball legends offered up their help for free, said Julie Bataille, communications director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Their ads will spark a full-court press effort to get young people - in particular, young men - to sign up for health insurance before enrollment ends March 31.

The ads, part of a $52 million campaign in digital, TV and radio advertising for the first quarter of 2014, will air on ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBAtv during NBA games.

"Not only are they recognizable, but because they have a compelling health story, it makes it very personable," Bataille said. "We went to them. Both agreed, and they were not paid for their contributions."

The expanded government campaign comes as opponents of the Affordable Care Act, such as the conservative group Americans for Prosperity, are spending millions of dollars on negative television advertisements attacking Democratic members of Congress for supporting the law.

Earlier this week, the administration announced that 2.1 million people had signed up for health insurance through the state and federal exchanges, most of whom signed up in December -- after Healthcare.gov was fully operating.

"There was no expectation that we would throw the doors open and everyone would flock in," said Timothy Jost, who teaches health law at Washington and Lee University School of Law. "And of course, for the first two months, the doors weren't really open."

The administration basically ended up with one month's worth of enrollment, and that was a month filled with vacations and holiday shopping, and not necessarily visions of health care plans, said Jost, the author of an article in the journal Health Affairs about how the Affordable Care Act's performance in 2013.

"But people are signing up right now as we speak, and the big push for enrollment is just getting underway," Jost said.

Now is the time for the government to start advertising, Jost said, because the HealthCare.gov website is working.

While the new advertising campaign is focused on young men, women will not be left out, Bataille said. Canvassers will visit farmers' markets and college campuses, particularly community colleges, to encourage enrollment. There will also be an intense online market campaign through social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

"Women in general are often health care decision-makers in their families," Bataille said. "They also tend to be more self-aware of health issues sometimes than men are."

Johnson and Mourning say they discovered their ailments and received treatment because they had health insurance.

Johnson was diagnosed with HIV in 1991, but had no idea he was sick until after a full exam from his doctor, something he says wouldn't have happened if he wasn't insured. Mourning's cousin, retired Marine Jason Cooper, donated his kidney to Mourning in 2003 after Mourning was diagnosed with a rare kidney disease.

"I was at the top of my game," Mourning says in his ad spot. "I felt invincible, but when I went for my regular team physical, it turned out I had serious kidney disease. It was caught in time to treat, and lucky for me, I was insured."

The advertisements follow a two-minute video released at Whitehouse.gov Wednesday of Johnson talking about his experience, but also sporting Twitter and Facebook links, a key component of the new campaign. Johnson talked about sports injuries and rehab, but he also talked about being diagnosed with HIV.

"I remember when I took my physical and they told me I had HIV over 22 years ago," he says in the video. "If it wasn't for that quality health care that I had and the plan that I had, I probably would have been dead. You never know when you're going to need it."

The news follows the Covered California-led national Tell A Friend, Get Covered effort, which also brings in celebrities in a social media campaign. On Wednesday, Get Covered Illinois announced a series of marketing events centered around Martin Luther King Day.